


Sisters of Midnight

by Rachel24601



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Childhood Trauma, Dark, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, High School, Human/Vampire Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Sister-Sister Relationship, Vampire Hunters, Vampire Slayer(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:40:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25630705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rachel24601/pseuds/Rachel24601
Summary: Buffy hasn’t seen her sister, Faith, in years, when she shows up out of the blue in Sunnydale High, only to tell her that a war is raging between the forces of good and evil, and the two of them have been chosen as humanity’s last hope of survival. The slayers come to the 2020s.
Relationships: Angel/Buffy Summers, Cordelia Chase/Faith Lehane, Spike/Buffy Summers
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	1. The Surprise

This was not happening.

Buffy stood, frozen on the spot, in the middle of the cafeteria, her eyes locked with those of the mischievously smiling brown-haired girl who was sitting at a nearby table.

“Buffy, what –”

Xander exclaimed after having narrowly stopped himself from tripping, even managing to keep most of the food inside his tray.

Next to them, Willow cast her ever-earnest eyes on Buffy, before following her friend’s stare to the girl –

The girl who sat among other students, but not with them.

The girl whose red smile was like a burning iron to Buffy’s brain.

Faith.

Her sister.

“That’s, uh –”

Xander tried to follow the silent conversation that was going on around him, while failing to completely look indifferent to the fact that they were drawing several inquisitive glances. This was without mentioning that they were creating a bit of a jam, standing in the way of other students and their meals, which was never a truly safe place to be standing.

“That’s the new student,” Xander said finally.

There was no need to introduce her more properly.

Sunnydale was no thrilling place, and the fact that a new girl had been signed into the local high school in the middle of October had been enough to make the news.

Buffy had heard about her, yes.

But she had not known, had not thought –

“Buffy, what is it?” Concern broke loose into Willow’s tone. “Is she – I mean – do you –”

Though she was too far to catch any of Willow’s stammering, Faith shot a cat-like look at Buffy and her group, before holding out her palm and pressing it to her lips, before blowing them a kiss.

If the three of them standing in the middle of the cafeteria hadn’t completely captured the other students’ attention, Faith’s kiss was impossible to ignore.

Cheeks burning with anger, Buffy looked straight ahead of her and made for the first table available. She did not even look back to see if Willow and Xander were following.

“What was that?”

“Later,” Buffy said.

She didn’t mean to snap. This was in no way her friends’ fault, and yet she found it safer not to look higher than her plate of congealed stew, so they wouldn’t be on the receiving end of the blaze of her fuming stare.

_She could have told me she was coming._

_Could have let me know instead of just showing up here._

True, Buffy hadn’t spoken to Faith in months – three months, to be exact, and that had only amounted to a few lines on WhatsApp to wish her a happy birthday.

Then there was a nagging voice in Buffy’s head, saying it was all very well to blame Faith for coming here unannounced, but she, Buffy, wasn’t winning any sister-of-the-year awards.

_You don’t call. You hardly write._

Yes, but –

But did that give Faith the right to commit what felt like a huge breach of Buffy’s privacy?

Sunnydale was her town. Faith could have all the rest of California, and she’d been happy enough staying with their dad while Buffy remained here with their mother, a peaceful equilibrium that just couldn’t come undone without some sort of warning.

“That’s Faith, isn’t it?”

Buffy looked up from her untouched plate and met Willow’s eyes in startle.

Xander unceremoniously dropped the banana he’d been peeling, as if the moment demanded ceremony.

“Your mom keeps a photo of her in the wall above the staircase. I didn’t recognize her at first.”

Buffy couldn’t blame her for that. Faith was no older than ten years old on the picture Willow was speaking of, and the witchy, dark-clad teenager that had blown them a kiss from her table had come a long way off from that little girl.

“Yes,” Buffy saw no point in denying.

Xander looked behind his shoulder and hastily retreated when the two girls hissed.

“Be _discreet_.”

“Sorry.”

But his attempts at stealth were a complete failure as he stole glances toward Faith’s table.

“Wow. She doesn’t – I mean, you don’t look alike at all.”

“I know.”

“And she didn’t tell you she was coming here?”

Xander licked his lips self-consciously at Buffy’s silence.

“Naturally, she didn’t,” he said, “or this lunch would have been scene-free. Well. Silence is a virtue I must get the hang of.”

“Do you want to go and talk to her?”

“Not right now,” Buffy said.

Although she supposed, sooner or later, she would have to.

And Faith’s eyes, burning holes in the back of her skull, told her it would most likely be sooner.

…

Buffy was silent, facing her reflection in the dirty mirror hanging above the sink in the girls’ bathroom. The excuse she’d given Willow and Xander was that she needed to freshen up, and so she splashed water over her face and neck, and applied a fresh layer of lipstick. But the touch of the tube on her lips was distant. Her whole body felt like a random accumulation of body parts, unconnected to a coherent core.

Buffy thought of Faith’s grin at the table again and anger stiffened her hand into a fist, causing the tube to draw a pinkish line across her cheek.

“Damn it.”

She pressed both hands against the edge of the sink and looked down, the tube still in one fist, trying to quiet the wild throb of her heartbeat inside her chest.

She hated that Faith had had the liberty to burst in, unannounced, rocking the peaceful flow that was Buffy’s high school life in Sunnydale.

Most of all, she hated how her anger mingled with guilt, and the nagging voice in her head that wondered, _Why didn’t she warn you? What did you do wrong along the way that your own sister would move and not bother to let you know?_

To hell with this.

Just because Buffy was a year and a half older than Faith, her whole life had revolved around her sister. When Faith was hungry, sleepy, hurt, bored, _she_ cooked, nursed her, entertained her. When their mother was at work, struggling with the task of raising two daughters with a three-quarters absentee father, it was Buffy who was to ‘watch Faith’, to make her macaroni for dinner, to get her to bed even when Faith protested.

True, Faith had seemed to hate the imbalance in their relationship as much as she did.

And yet Buffy could not help from viewing her sister as an ungrateful child, which was maybe revealing as to how much the habit of taking care of Faith had left its mark on her.

It hadn’t really struck her, as they were growing up, that there was deep, genuine resent in Faith’s constant defiance. That her persistent rebelliousness and refusal to make it easier on Buffy was a way of saying she took the whole ‘being taken care of’ thing as a betrayal.

After all, why did Buffy have to do what their mother asked?

Why couldn’t the both of them make the law in the house, sleep when they were tired, eat whatever was close at hand? Why couldn’t they have spent those childhood years as equals – as _sisters_ , each supporting the other, without need for rules and obedience?

“What is it, B?”

Buffy looked up immediately and saw her sister’s snow-white face reflected in the glass, behind her.

“Not happy to see me, are you?”

“No.” Buffy turned around. “I mean, of course, that’s not –”

“Oh, spare yourself the effort of putting up a show of sisterliness.”

Just with her smile, Faith made a mockery of the polished façade Buffy was trying to keep in place.

Whatever resent Faith may have felt in the past, there was none left in her voice now. “We never got along, I know. I was a spoiled brat, you were a tight-ass. Let’s get that out of the way.”

“Look, I have friends waiting –”

“Oh no, you don’t have to worry. I told the pair that was waiting for you outside we needed a little quality time, just between sis.”

Buffy felt her jaw wanting to drop and clenched it tight instead.

“You had no right to –”

“I’ve got every right, B.”

A surprising seriousness had crept into Faith’s tone.

“We need to talk, you and me.”

A new surge of boiling rage swam to Buffy’s mouth.

“You’re right,” she said. “Why don’t we start with how you could be so selfish to come here without even telling mom? Do you know what this is going to do to her?”

Faith burst into sprinkling peals of laughter. “So typical Buffy. I say we need to talk, you immediately assume you’re going to do the talking. Well, _I_ ’ve got news for you, B. Important news.”

Her red grin grew wider on her lips.

“ _Exciting_ news.”

“This is all a game to you?”

“Like I’m still a little kid,” Faith sighed. “No, it’s not a game. It’s very, very important business. Not that you and I aren’t going to have _insane_ amounts of fun with it.”

“You know what?” Buffy snapped. “I’ve got better things planned for the afternoon than listening to you and your mind tricks. So if there’s really anything important you need to tell me, do it. Now. Or I’m leaving.”

Faith chuckled, smiling still with that smile Buffy wanted to snatch from her lips.

“Okay, well. If this feels brutal, you’ve had it coming.”

“Just spit it out –”

“You and I are slayers, Buffy. We’re the last remaining hope to defeat the forces of evil in this world and save humanity.”


	2. The Kill

**24 Hours Earlier**

In the California heat, still making itself known in October, an 8-hour bus ride did not seem like something that would go by quickly. Indeed, any amount of time spent on a bus, even the fifteen-minute type, seemed to be ruled by some inescapable law very specific to buses according to which the trip was to be hot, uncomfortable, and, as a result inevitably longer than it actually was. Yet by some inexplicable logic, minutes turned into hours faster than if Faith had been deeply asleep. When the bus made a stop halfway to Sunnydale, allowing the passengers to stretch their legs for a few minutes, she was astonished to realize she’d been playing with her headphones without even plugging them in. This must have been the first time she spent more than a couple of hours without her music.

Four hours had gone by and she hadn’t even begun to think of what to say to Buffy.

_Hey, B. Terrible to see you as always, by the way, I have recently found that there are more pressing issues on this planet than climate change! I know right! Well the two might actually be linked, nothing is off the table here. Indeed perhaps it is this mix of pandemic and Trumpism that raised all hell on earth gave birth to actual monsters. Oh yes, those are a thing now, and apparently, it is very much our business. Sorry for breaking it down to you, maybe you would have enjoyed to bathe in this blissful state of ignorance a bit longer but I literally have no choice but to tell you that life as you know it is over. How do you like to be the little sister for once_?

She would have to sell it. Pretend like this was something she thought was fun, something that didn’t fill her with dread and terror. Pretend like she hadn’t nearly jumped in front of a bus after her first kill. Pretend like she wasn’t unable to sleep without smoking half a pack of cigarettes and a stake in her hand.

She couldn’t help but wonder if this was actually the reason Buffy had never been able to love her. She knew her sister wasn’t fooled by the act, that she was aware of the artificiality that surrounded her every time she opened her mouth or even smiled. But she couldn’t figure out if Buffy hated her for being fake, or if she hated what only she was able to see deep down.

_Well, keep faking and you won’t find out_ , she told herself.

Yes, she would sell this as something fun. Say she’d known for months. Indifferent to the sacrifices, to the loss – the abominable loss it demanded.

She remembered the sharp piece of wood leaving a red print in her hand after she had done it. It had been so easy. Instinctive. But the brief flash of pain she had seen in his eyes before he’d turned to dust. The absurd emptiness she felt. And then the awful thought had crossed her mind. Not _you deserved this_ , not _oh lord what have I done_ , but a quiet exciting thought: _I could get used to this._

She saw something moving in the corner of her eye and was pulled out of her thoughts. It was a spider. She felt an urgent need to move from her seat but didn’t. She tried to figure out what was so scary about this small harmless creature. But the fear wasn’t rational, it came from her gut, from every inch of her body. Like a calling.

_Kill it_.

But she forced herself to sit back, her entire body tense against her seat.

I will fight this. She told herself, even as the spider began to crawl on the very edge of her seat. I am more than this urgency raging inside me. I am more than this compelling desire. I am –

_Clack_.

Her hand flied swiftly across the seat to slap the spider against the wall.

She looked at her hand in shock.

“There’s no point in being careful.” Spike had told her. “It’s going to end up controlling you anyway. The sooner you let go the better.”

The bus began moving again and she realized she had wasted her last shot at a cigarette. She was entranced, her eyes moving endlessly from her hand to the spider, as though she expected it to turn into dust.

….

Looking at Buffy’s Facebook page was very entertaining. _Man that Cordelia chick was hot_. She sighed as she went through her sister’s photos, most of them featuring a red head and the most average looking guy she’d ever seen. There was a sudden sting when she came across the perfect image of Buffy posing next to her mom, both of them smiling at the camera, an ill-decorated Christmas tree in the background.

Her cellphone shattered in her hand before she even realized she was squeezing it.

Her mouth opened in astonishment.

“Fuck.” She said simply.

She felt like Gulliver, in the middle of Lilliput. Everything around her small and insignificant. Inside her head, a seed, the tiniest hint of curiosity. The unspoken enjoyment of imagining the damage she could do.

But the giants would come, she knew. And she would soon be reminded of her own smallness and insignificance. Perhaps even, a day would come when she would feel closer to these alien monsters than to her own kind. And then, when she would no longer be able to tell the difference between man and monster, what holy righteousness would be able to dictate which she was meant to protect, and which she had been born to slay?

…

**Present Day**

“I don’t have time for games, Faith.”

“Not a game,” Faith walked cautiously among the tombstones, pretending she wasn’t aware of her sister’s eyes, scanning every move she made. “Proof.”

When Faith had confronted her sister in the girls’ bathroom, Buffy’s reaction had been predictable. First, barely for a split second, a flash of disbelief, immediately followed by anger. _Because she’ll think I’m messing with her_. Dear old Faith, not grown up enough to think better of making stuff up.

Faith had anticipated this and been quick with a plan B – how fitting it should be called that?

“No, B, I’m quite serious. Yes, _really_. In fact, if you give me thirty minutes of your time,” it would most likely be a couple hours, but Buffy would never agree to that on the spot, “you’ll never have to bother with me at all. You’ll assume I’m a pretty lying brat and we can both sit on our side of the school and glare smolderingly at each other. The boys will love it. What do you say?”

Buffy hadn’t said anything, merely stood there, glaring at Faith despite herself, and looking surprisingly badass already, with that smudge of pink lipstick across her cheek.

So, they’d left the bathroom and Buffy agreed to follow Faith, on foot, to the Sunnydale cemetery.

_The girls’ bathroom_ , Faith thought again, when they were walking in the heat of Californian evenings. What better place for such a ceremonial moment? Spike would be proud of her.

“You have _got_ to be kidding.”

Faith got a tiny throb of pleasure at the exaggerated grownup-ness in Buffy’s voice.

Oh, how she was expecting to scold her and go home, dignified, by the end of the day.

“A graveyard, Faith? What is this, some early Halloween prank?”

_I wish_.

But Faith said nothing, and though she let out irritated sighs every five seconds, Buffy followed her into the growing dusk among the tombstones.

…

Buffy was not wearing the right clothes to be doing this. Not that _any_ clothes would make it really more tolerable.

“Can’t believe I’m going along with this,” she muttered between her teeth.

In truth, it could only be that Faith had caught her in a moment of unprepared weakness. How could she have humored her so much as to follow her in this godforsaken –

“Ouch!”

She cried as she stepped on a sharp rock that cut right through the plastic of her shoe. She was only wearing flip-flops.

Faith turned around, looked from Buffy’s face to the droplets of blood pooling inside her shoe.

“Come on,” she said. “We’re almost there.”

“Okay, that’s it.”

Buffy stopped walking, and after a moment, Faith turned back around.

Half-absently, Buffy was surprised that Faith didn’t sigh, or really make a show of anything. If she had really dragged her there to humiliate her, then why wasn’t she having more fun with it?

“I’m not going one step closer to wherever you’ve planted your big prank, all right? Damn it. I’ve spoiled you too much already, Faith.”

A look like wildfire came into her sister’s eyes.

“Oh, _I_ ’m spoiled Buffy, am I?”

She took a step closer.

Night was closing in around them like a dream of black smoke.

“You, with your perfect friends, and your perfect house, and your perfect family.”

“How dare you bring mom into this.” Buffy was too surprised to sound outraged. “No one _made_ you leave, Faith.”

She watched as her sister clenched her jaw, and felt a disturbing wave of admiration, before she could help it.

She would have sworn Faith was incapable of holding in any sort of emotional outburst before.

She really _had_ changed.

“Come on,” she repeated. “Let’s go.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Tough luck.”

“I’m _bleeding_.”

“All the better.”

“Okay, what the hell _is_ this –”

But Buffy had no time to finish her scathing jab before something strong, so fast as to be invisible to the eye, jumped straight on her.

It had come, it seemed, straight out of the night.

…

Faith struggled to stay still when Buffy cried for help.

The urgent need to protect her screaming in her chest.

“You have to do it.” She said calmly, plucking a cigarette out her brand-new pack and lighting it.

In a flash, she jumped to her feet when her sister’s body came hard against the tombstone.

The familiarity of the scene was harrowing.

The flash of memories was sudden and unavoidable.

He father’s hand flying over Buffy’s face as their mother cried in agony.

“Help me.”

_Does she even remember?_ Faith wondered.

The sounds of distress coming out of Buffy’s mouth as she crawled away from the beast were unbearable.

Faith clutched at the stake in her hand, ready to strike.

“Come on you can do this!” She cried, suddenly filled with panic.

What if she couldn’t? They were both slayers, or so Spike had told her, but what if only Faith was cursed with this wicked calling?

_No_ , she thought. It would happen. Survival would kick in and she would rip the monster’s head off and it would feel _right_. Because it was. It had to be.

_It can’t just be me_ , she repeated in her head, like a prayer.

_Come on Buffy_.

Faith finally snapped when the monster sank its teeth in Buffy’s neck and she cried out in pain.

The body evaporated and left Buffy covered in dust.

She looked at some fixed spot behind Faith, in a complete state of shock.

Faith had no patience for this.

“What the fuck B!” She spat. “Why won’t you fucking fight?”

She threw the stake and it fell on Buffy’s lap.

“Get yourself home. I hope you come across some trouble along the way.”

Faith turned back one last time to her sister before disappearing into the night.

“I won’t always be there to do your dirty work.”

…

Back at the hotel Faith unsuccessfully tried to smother the rage.

If Buffy died tonight, she thought, she would be relieved.

Then she wouldn’t have to worry about her and take care of her.

She remembered the mix of joy and panic she had felt when Spike had told her.

“You might want to get ahold of that sister of yours, seems like you’re in this together.”

_Together_.

She had been so fucking pathetic to hope Buffy would be able to face the ugly side of her. That she would drive a stake into the monster’s heart and look at her in awe. That she would give her a look that said “I’m here. You’re not alone in this anymore. We’ll fight this together.” But more than anything, a look that said “I know.” _Finally._

Instead, all she had seen on her sister’s face had been shock and helplessness.

When you survive, you don’t get to be helpless.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by a sudden and unexpected knock.

Her body was suddenly tense and filled with the tiniest hint of hope. _Is it you B? Did you have it in you to survive, do you finally see?_

As she opened the door, the vision before her left her speechless.

The way Buffy was looking at her made her shiver. It was as if they were both linked by an indescribable connection, and at this very moment, she felt certain this connection would never die.

The awareness they saw in each other’s eyes brought tears to Faith’s eyes. But Buffy’s tears were dried, deader than the dust on her clothes. It was as if they had been reborn.

The boogeyman could no longer stay in the closet as they played safely in their room. No one would come for them. They would rise and protect each other the way they always had, both unaware of the other’s part in this game none of them had chosen.

Looking at the cigarette in Faith’s hand, Buffy finally said.

“Mind if I have one of those?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm having such a great time working on this with my twinnie. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section!


	3. Midnight

Faith had disappeared among the tombstones before Buffy could make an actual attempt at following her.

She didn’t shout, “Wait!”

Not out of pride or anything. Right at this second, Buffy’s pride was about in the same state as the handful of dust that covered her. She could feel it in her hair, her neck, sinking into her shirt.

For a moment, God only knew how long, Buffy lay there, paralyzed, her eyes lost, gazing at the spot where Faith had been standing what felt like a full lifetime ago.

This morning, she was hanging out with Xander and Willow, parting ways when it was time for the cheerleaders’ practice, exchanging notes and half-mouthed words in class.

But Buffy had fallen from this world in which everything was as it should be, into a nightmare black as midnight, where there was no light, no guide save for her little sister, who had spent their whole childhood making Buffy’s life a living hell.

“A living hell,” Buffy said the words out loud.

The sound of her own voice into the darkness of this hair-bristling place disturbed her more than anything. Suddenly, the thought of lying there, on the ground of a graveyard, sickened her so, she jumped to her feet, and couldn’t believe she had lain motionless for that long.

“This is a joke, right,” she whispered, to the night, to the ruling forces of the universe.

It was absurd, but this whole day had been absurd, too. Having her sister pop out of the past only to lead her to some deadly trap –

Not a trap.

All the time that they were walking to the graveyard, she had been talking about slayers. Chosen ones.

“So she’s – _initiating_ me?” Buffy realized she was still covered in dust. Remembering where it had come from, she shook it off as quick as possible.

Something else dropped to the ground with a dull _plop_.

Buffy lowered her eyes and saw it was a sharp wooden stake, like the one Faith had used on the – the whatever-it-was-thing that had attacked her.

“Oh, screw that.”

She shivered lightly as she cursed.

Every time she tried on crude language, it was like she was that little girl again who had to watch her language so that her sister didn’t pick up any bad habits from her.

A little ironic, considering Faith could probably fill a book with the colorful vulgarities that made their way into her daily speech.

“Little late to be wandering about, isn’t it?” A male voice spoke behind her.

Buffy couldn’t hold back the full-blown scream that tore open her mouth as she turned around.

At first, the sound of that scream reassured her, because it was in order, it fitted in with the world as she understood it.

Besides, why _shouldn’t_ she scream?

If anyone was around, it would draw them, and then maybe whoever heard her could – what? Go get help?

From whom?

The Monster-Chasing Police?

It had been too sudden with the other, the one Faith had killed, for her to really see his face. This time, there was no avoiding it.

The creature that stood at a few yards from Buffy was like nothing humanity could have created.

The features of its face were crunched up toward the center, the hawk yellow eyes bright with unholy appetites, and a huge, gaping mouth whose sharp teeth made Buffy think of that Odyssey monster, that ocean of teeth that swallows Ulysses’ men alive.

“Oh my God.”

“No need for blaspheme, sweetheart. This will only hurt – for a little while.”

The creature lurched forward, and Buffy jumped to the ground without thinking.

Yes, there were no thoughts, only instinct, as her hand closed around the stake, and she sprung up, her arm brandished straight as a sword, just as the monster was plunging toward her.

Her eyes were fixed on his face and their gazes met before Buffy could help it.

Terror like liquid steel rained down on her as she felt the stake come into contact with his heart – how had she aimed? _Why_? How could she have known, like a blood-and-bones-deep intuition, that this was the right place to strike?

Pain drowned the hideous features of its face before it died.

Still, there was no mistaking it for anything human, and yet, pain was universal, an unambiguous language that every living creature of day or night knew how to speak.

“No,” she said. “No –”

The creature burst into a shower of powdery ash.

Some of it fell between Buffy’s still parted lips, and she held the stake tight in her fist, which was pressed against the hammering throb of her own heart.

…

Night was different as she walked her way through the graveyard that night, and finally, to Faith’s motel room.

Every noise, every slightest motion, made Buffy tighten her hold on the stake she hadn’t yet let go of.

Night would never be the same again.

Last weekend only, she was getting out of the movie theater with Xander and Willow, complaining about the ever-rising price of tickets, as they strolled through the streets with a half-full bucket of popcorn, the night aglow from the light of the streetlamps.

Night had just been a _time_ back then.

Now, it was a world.

A whole universe.

There were a couple missed calls from her mother on Buffy’s cell phone. Nothing unusual. Probably meant to confirm Joyce would be working late, and Buffy needn’t wait up for her for dinner.

Half-aware of what she was doing, Buffy texted her mom something about spending the night at Willow’s to work on a school project.

The very thought of Willow’s sweet concerned face might have brought her to the state of tears, if it wasn’t for that frost coating around her heart, that odd numbness as she wiped the traces of vampire-dust from the screen of her cell phone.

_I can’t go home_ , she thought. _And I can’t go to Willow’s_.

Really, Buffy realized she knew where her feet had been taking her before she had even made a conscious decision to go and see Faith tonight.

After a night like this one, it was the only option that made sense.

Faith had given her no address, no clue as how to find her.

Yet this posed no real problem to Buffy.

It was strange, the same strangeness that had awoken Buffy’s senses when the vampire had leapt for the kill. How he had seemed to go in slow motion, though she was aware of his being so fast as to disappear to the naked eye. How her hand had immediately plunged for his heart, how she had known exactly how deep to sink the stake in so she could penetrate the layer of skin and bones all the way to that sensitive organ.

Buffy didn’t know where Faith was or how to find her.

But she could _feel_ her.

It was like following a thread of moonlight through the darkness.

The clock on Buffy’s phone read ten to midnight when she reached a shaggy motel by the side of the road, just outside of Sunnydale.

Guided still by that invisible force that seemed to tie her sister’s fate with hers, Buffy walked before room number six and knocked.

She didn’t think, _What if I’m wrong, what if it’s some creepy old dude standing behind that door?_

She _knew_.

A moment later, Faith opened the door, and Buffy watched as her sister took in every detail, from the state of her clothes to the look in her eyes.

_Do I look it?_ She wondered.

Is there a certain shine in my eyes, a benighted brightness that marks me as a killer?

Faith didn’t say.

Buffy’s eyes lowered to the smoke issuing from the cigarette in Faith’s hand.

“Mind if I have one of those?”

Faith stared for a moment longer then stepped aside. Instead of plucking a fresh cigarette out of her pack, however, she handed Buffy the one she had been smoking.

For some reason, that night, to Buffy’s estranged mind, it made all the sense in the world.

As if the sisters were making some sort of compact that would bind them in life as well as death, until the end of times.

Faith closed the door behind her, and Buffy put the cigarette in her mouth.

It was midnight.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm co-writing this fanfiction with my twin sister, who's going to handle Faith's POV. So excited about this. Please let me know your thoughts in the comment section. Take care!


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